The Abrahamic Lifestyle 9

THE WAITING PERIOD

He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief;

but was strong in faith, giving glory to God – Rom 4:20

Abraham understood the significance of God’s word. When conditions around him proved that there was no hope of the manifestation of the promise, he held on. He was not discouraged. Looking at the life of this man, a question we may want to ask is “What was he doing during the waiting period?” 

The Scripture reveals something unique about the character of this man. We are made to understand that he staggered not at the promise of God; he was strong in faith and never gave room for unbelief or despair. The most intriguing of all was that all through that waiting period, he was busy rejoicing and giving glory to God for a son that is yet to come. He saw himself as the father of the promised child and was preparing himself for that responsibility.

It is a common practice these days to see Christians becoming frustrated when their prayers are not answered on time. Their frustrations are directed towards heaven and they begin to ask God “Why, why?”  They look for alternative solution and begin to depend on humans in place of God. This ought not to be so.

There is a lesson for us in the life of Abraham. The place of faith in prayer cannot be overlooked. We must be strong in faith and believe God is interested in answering our prayers. We must learn how to rejoice and thank Him even when the prayers have not been answered. 

Are you trusting God for a spouse? Believe it is done. Organize your thought process. Rejoice in Him. Think and act like the spouse has come. Are you believing Him for a job? Believe it is settled. Envision yourself already working in that establishment. Draw the spending analysis of your expected income. Plan what you intend to make out of that job. 

In all, never fail to give Him glory. Always see the waiting period as a season of rejoicing, knowing that God inhabits the praises of His people. As you learn to do this, and wholly depend on Him, He will hear those secret cries of yours and bestow upon you an awesome reward.

The Abrahamic Lifestyle 8

SEEING WITHOUT THE EYES

(As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,)

Before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the

dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were

-Rom 4:17

The creation story is that which should always continue to inspire us. The Scripture records that the earth was in chaos before God stepped in. It was without form, and void, and darkness was everywhere. The interesting thing to note is that in the midst of this chaos, God saw a beautiful planet that you and I inhabit today. He called those plants and animals into existence.

At the age of hundred, Abraham should have ruled out the possibility of Sarah conceiving and becoming a mother. By every human standard, both of them should be considered finished. But Abraham held on to the promise. He saw himself as a father when he was unfit biologically. He never allowed any discouragement or limitation to creep into his life. He believed when such a belief was totally hopeless. Eventually he got the physical manifestation of his dream.

Many in life have failed to rise above their present level because of limitations they have imposed on themselves. They have allowed themselves to be limited by the circumstances around them. They have looked at their educational background, age, economy, etc and muttered to themselves “It is no longer possible.” There is a need for us to see beyond our present status in life like Abraham did. The God that has called us His sons and daughters is not limited by anything. He is Infinity! We must learn to dream big of ourselves and believe totally that God can call those dreams into existence.

Remember the Tower of Babel. In our present day, people would probably have laughed and scorned such a project. They would have regarded it as the joke of the century. However, God did not see it that way. He said nothing can restrain those people from what they have imagined to do (Gen 11:6). Sometime ago, I heard a testimony of a brother who was visiting a particular multinational company for the first time. By the time he got there, he liked the place and started praying that God should open the door of that place to him. As at the time of writing this, he is a senior executive in that establishment. 

When you visit important places or meet important figures for the first time, what goes on in your head? Do you see yourself becoming relevant in such places? Do you see yourself rising to the status of those people? Or you rejoice because of another opportunity to take pictures that can be uploaded to your Facebook account? 

We must grow beyond the level of limiting ourselves. We must grow beyond wasting timeless opportunities. Our thought process must be worked upon. Somebody once said that whatever can happen in your head can happen in reality. The character of God has never changed and it will never change. With Him, nothing shall be impossible. 

The Scripture says He calleth those things which be not as though they were. May the Lord enlighten the eyes of your understanding and may He grant you the grace to see beyond your present condition.

The Abrahamic Lifestyle 7

DIVINE OWNERSHIP

And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself

himself a lamb for a burnt offering; so they went both

of them together  - Gen 22:8

The birth of Isaac brought a season of celebration into the life of Abraham. He was full of joy because his long-awaited heir has finally come. So, when God told him to sacrifice the child, we would have expected him to question God for the rationale behind such a command. He could have resisted and told God why it was impossible to perform such a sacrifice. Isaac was more than a son to him: the fullness of the promise settled upon him. Sacrificing him means sacrificing all Abraham’s hope and the future of his descendants.

Rather, we saw Abraham exhibiting total obedience. On his way to the place of sacrifice, Isaac asked him for the lamb to be used for the burnt offering. His response was that God would provide for Himself a lamb for burnt offering. We may wonder why he uttered such a statement. He was the one that needed to perform a sacrifice, not God. How could he expect God to provide a lamb when He (God) was obviously not performing any sacrifice?

Abraham said this because he understood that there is Divine Ownership upon all he had. He knew fully well that God was the real owner of everything in his possession: he was just a custodian. The child was God’s property and if God required it, he was not in a position to deny the Owner His right. It was God who needed the sacrifice not Abraham. So, it was God’s responsibility to provide a lamb for His own sacrifice.

Like Abraham, we must come to the realization that there is Divine Ownership upon all that we have. Whatever is in our possession was given to us by God. A lot of Christians have problems with giving. They believe they own everything in their possession. Nothing in our life should be too much to give to God. God demanded the most important thing in the life of Abraham and he didn’t delay in offering it. We too must not delay in sacrificing that Isaac (time, money, resources, etc) when God demands.

As Abraham laid his son on the altar of sacrifice, God gave him a better substitute. Not only that, because of his total obedience, God poured upon him unending blessings. He received the blessings he never bargained for. He left home in grief but came back rejoicing.

Learn to obey and give to God without holding back anytime he demands. Total obedience is the key to greater blessings. Giving to God by helping that fellow in need without any attached conditions will bring about abundance of blessings that the finite human mind can never imagine.

THE ABRAHAMIC LIFESTYLE 6

THE NATURE OF MAN 

And the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people, he hath broken my covenant – Gen 17:14

God made a covenant with Abraham concerning the future of his seed. The sign of this covenant was circumcision. Every male seed who wants to partake of the covenant must be circumcised. Failure to do it means such a person would be cut off from God’s people.

Circumcision is the putting off of the body of flesh (Col 2:11). It is necessary for every person who wants to be a partaker of the Abrahamic covenant to be circumcised. We are not by any means talking of physical circumcision. It is our hearts that need to be circumcised.

 The nature we inherited from Adam after his fall (simply called the flesh) is sinful and opposes everything that is God’s. It is proud, arrogant and boastful. Just as an archer with a defective eyesight will always end up with incorrect shots, all our (sinful) incorrect actions are as a result of this defective sinful nature. It is the reason why we rely so much on our strength, eloquence, intelligence, beauty, etc. It is the reason why we find it difficult to please God (Rom 8:8)

A God’s chosen people, we are to be people with no confidence in the flesh. Apostle Paul enjoins us not to have any confidence in flesh (Phil 3:3) because without God, we can do nothing (Jn 15:5). We need God to deal with this nature of flesh in us. It does not need to be repaired because it is too corrupted. In similitude to Abraham’s obedience, we too must cut off the body of flesh. This is not something we can achieve on our own. We need the Lord’s help and only He can make it happen, if His covenant must be established in our lives.

This is high time we conducted an examination of ourselves. We need to identify those things that are still opposing God in us. We need to identify those things that are still making total obedience to the Lord a difficulty. They must be nailed to the cross and we must ask the Lord to help perfect every imperfection in our lives.

When we sincerely pray this prayer every time we feel the flesh is about to come alive in us, the Merciful Lord will hear those prayers and bestow upon us the grace we need to overcome.

THE ABRAHAMIC LIFESTYLE 5

Standing in the Gap

And Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt thou also

destroy the righteous with the wicked? – Gen 18:23

Abraham was resting by his tent door in the heat of the day when he saw three men standing before him. Quickly he rushed out to meet them and then invited them to dine with him. As the men rose up after eating, the Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do?” (Gen 18:17). This was how it was revealed to Abraham that the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were booked for destruction.

Ordinarily, we would have expected him to rejoice on hearing this. He had every reason to be happy because God was about to deal with his enemies and that meant more land for him to acquire. Rather we saw him interceding for those people. He pleaded for them to be spared from the impending judgment.

Like Abraham, we need to cultivate the habit of interceding for people. Hear this shocking truth: God looked round and saw there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor…. (Is 59:16). God expects you and I to become intercessors and we must not fail Him in this responsibility.

The Enemy does not want us to pray. He is working round the clock to hinder us from praying for God’s intervention in our national and international affairs. Our generation is that which requires extraordinary praying. We may ask why. The reason is because the enemy knows his time is short and the powers of darkness are greater today than before.

Brethren, we need to rise up to the task at hand. The souls of men must be freed from the Enemy’s grip and the powers of darkness must be utterly shattered. John Knox cried “Give me Scotland or I die”. Somebody later recorded that the whole nation of Scotland was converted by a lump. John got the answer to his prayers and we also can when we pray for our nation.

May the Lord use us mightily as vessels that will rescue the souls of men from the road to hell as we continually stand in the gap for our people.

THE ABRAHMIC LIFESTYLE 4

The Gift or the Giver

After these things, the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward – Gen 15:1

The life of Abraham is that which portrayed a life of absolute dependence upon God. When God declared Himself as Abraham’s shield and reward, we would have expected him to jump up and profusely thank God for such an awesome offer. Instead, Abraham did a contrary thing. His response indicated that something else was more important to Him: the issue of an heir (Gen 15:2).

If we were given the opportunity to judge Abraham’s reaction, many of us would have said “How can an heir be more important to him than God?”. Though Abraham spoke his mind and was very human in this regard, God did not rebuke him. Rather He (God) reaffirmed his promise to him that he would indeed have an heir from his own loins (Gen 5:2 – 5).

When God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his only son (Gen 22), we were able to know who was more important to Abraham: the gift or the giver.  The birth of Isaac was very important. The fullness of the promise settled upon him. To sacrifice him was to sacrifice the covenant word of God. Heb 11: 17 – 19 paints a picture of the agony that Abraham felt at the costliness of this demand. The man proved his loyalty to God. He chose the Giver in place of the gift.

Today, Isaac can stand for many things in our lives. He represents many gifts of God’s grace. Before God gives, our hands are empty. Afterward, they become full and when God reaches out His hand to take ours in fellowship, we no longer have empty hands to put into His. Because we have received His gifts and are nursing them, our hands are full. We begin to dwell on the gifts at the neglect of the Giver.

Many have earnestly sought the face of God for jobs, marriages, career, etc but when these blessings come, they become hindrances to worshipping and fellowshipping with God. It’s a common thing to hear brothers and sisters giving jobs as excuse for being far away from church activities.

Are you guilty of this? Repent today! Remember that it was after Abraham’s obedience to the sacrifice of his son that God swore by himself to bless him. Nothing in our life should be more important than God. May the Lord grant us the grace to make Him our utmost priority everyday of our lives.

THE ABRAHAMIC LIFESTYLE 3

The Man Who Attempted To Help God

And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man’s hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren – Gen 16:17

At the age of eighty five years after which Abraham had dwelt in the land (Canaan) for ten years, he felt it was time his son arrived. In his desperation, he heeded Sarah’s advice and went in unto Hagar who bore him a son, Ishmael. Abraham believed it was time to help God.

This man ought to have known that the issue of a son was a deep one. He failed to understand that what was important was from whom the son came, and who gave him. God does not only want the right things done, He wants us to be the vessel of the right things that He is doing.

All Abraham got for his effort was Ishmael. Of him the Scriptures says “…he will be a wild man”. As a result, the world is still suffering from this wrong advice Abraham accepted. You and I know the destruction upon destruction that the descendants of Ishmael are still unleashing upon humanity till date. Perhaps you don't even know who his descendants are.

Are we found in the same situation like Abraham? What wrong advice is the Enemy offering you today? Anything done or received outside God amounts to helping God. And God cannot be helped by mere dust: man (Ps 103:14). The devices of the Enemy are many but we must not be ignorant of them. We need to guard ourselves against sinful suggestions. We must never allow ourselves to be cajoled into doing anything that does not originate from God; no matter how beautiful it may seem. 

Are you experiencing marital delay and friends are beginning to suggest a spouse to you? Or are you still jobless after so many years of searching and friends are pointing you to a “cloudy” money spinning business? Watch out! That spouse or business could be another Ishmael in making. “Be not deceived: God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (Gal 6:7).

May the Lord grant us the grace to wait upon Him for everything.